YMMV / Love Live! Superstar!!

• Actor Shipping:
  • Sayuri Date and Liyuu are shipped by some fans, given their closeness and lack of personal space at some pictures and live streams. Some fans also see their big height difference as a charm point, finding it cute.
  • Some fans ship Nako Misaki with Nagisa Aoyama due to their excellent chemistry. They're the most likely to goof off on- and off-stage, have a unique Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, and are co-hosts in an official radio show. Nagisa also likes teasing Nako while Nako has an exclusive nickname for Nagisa.
• Adorkable:
  • Keke is an idol fanatic that hounded Kanon to get her to perform and also has a somewhat bitter rivalry with Sumire, but that same love for idols and her relationship with Kanon gained her many fans, who tend to find her character traits irresistibly cute.
  • Ren often falls into this, for many of the same qualities that make her a Memetic Loser among fans, such as her reaction to viewing a yuri website, or her anxiety related to her status as a Gamer Chick.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Hazuki Ren is a very divisive character. While some fans like her voice and express sympathy over her multiple struggles, there's many fans that express tiredness at the "stuck-up school council president that later becomes an idol" archetype after Eli, Dia, Nana and Shioriko already put their spin on it. Her lack of popularity is not helped by how she is depicted as somewhat of an outsider to the rest of the Liella girls, and also lacking a popular ship of her own in comparison to the widely beloved KuuKaa/SumiKeke. With that said, she has won more fans over after her mid-Season 2 focus episode.
  • Some fans aren't fond of Keke, mostly because of her treatment towards Sumire. While SumiKeke remains a very popular pairing, and other fans just take their interactions as friendly banter, the aforementioned fans point out how Sumire receives far more one-sided teasing and mockery from Keke than any of the previous butt monkeys of the series, with many of her remarks feeling far more mean-spirited and derogatory than what Love Live has accustomed fans to, making it feel more akin to "bullying".
  • Kanon became this after some time. While some fans appreciate the talent of her voice actress, and her journey from a reluctant, demure performer with stage fright into an inspirational leader, other fans take umbrage with how much the story hypes her up as a "superstar" performer and puts her on the spotlight, arguing that it's doing so to the detriment of the rest of Liella!'s members, leading to Superstar feeling as the story of "Kanon and her back-up dancers".
• Broken Base:
  • Is Superstar a worthy successor of the Love Live franchise? Some fans and newcomers to the franchise have praised the "return to basics" style, while also appreciating the newer approach to their journey as school idols, the cute characters and the vibrant performances. Other viewers feel that the series fell on the short end of the stick to appeal to core fans, that the series relies too much on callbacks and references to School Idol Project, and that the returning staff can't stop relying on tropes and cliches that the fanbase has already grown weary of. Opinions split even more after the lukewarm reception to Season 2.
  • The addition of extra members to Liella!. Fans who had grown in love with the 5-characters concept and praised its uniqueness found contrived that Liella! was going back to 9 members, after promotional material and the series itself spent time hammering that Superstar was the story of 5 girls, and also didn't appreciate the in-universe justifications that Season 2 had for their addition, feeling that it came out of nowhere. Other fans were excited to see the character dynamics that could be explored, with the original 5 acting as mentors to the new girls, and called for the fanbase to be welcoming to the new characters, while also pointing out that Superstar had such an obvious setup to add new characters to Liella! that it would have been a waste to not do so.
  • Regarding Season 2, the quality of the songs/performances. There's fans that found the songs to be good, that they capture the character growth Liella! has gone through the season, and that they are worthy to be contenders on Love Live competition. Other fans feel that they are straight up bad, especially compared to previous series and even Superstar first season.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ren's mother, Hana Hazuki, is possibly one of the most memorable side-characters in Love Live, likely owing to the fact that she was an idol herself in her adolescence. The fact that she's the only character to ever be confirmed to be dead in the franchise just helps in this regard.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • A scenery shot in the teaser video having a sign for a coffee shop called "Honoka Coffee" raised hopes for fans that older counterparts of characters from µ's or Aqours have a chance of making a cameo after µ's was denied an in person cameo in Sunshine!!.
  • The nameplate for the School Idol Club's clubroom in Season 1 Episode 4 has been theorized as a potential plot thread; it is rendered as "学校アイドル部"^ExplanationThis also means "School Idol Club", but with kanji for the words "school" and "club" on the sign, which is a rather archaic spelling. Season 1 Episode 8 reveals that the room was used by the school idol group of Jinguu Music Academy, the closed school that Yuigaoka was built on.
  • It's thought that Ren may be one of the children who bullied Chisato when she was young, given that one of the girls seen in the flashback has a very similar hairstyle to present-day Ren and has identical hair and eye color.
• Fan Nickname:
  • For the voice actresses:
    • Sayuri Date (Sayurin)
    • Liyuu (Lichan)
    • Nako Misaki (Nakochan/Nakonako)
    • Naomi Payton (Paychan/Peiko)
    • Nagisa Aoyama (Nagichan)
    • Nozomi Suzuhara (Nonchan)
    • Akane Yabushima (Yabuchan)
    • Wakana Ookuma (Kumachan)
    • Aya Emori (Emorin)
    • Chihaya Yoshitake (Chihachan)
    • Yuna Yuuki (Yunana)
  • Nako is also called "[Liella's] Mama" by fans after an interview segment where Liyuu referred to Nako as such.
  • In the anime side, Natsumi is usually referred to as "Oninuts", derived from her In-Universe Nickname "Oninatsu".
• Fountain of Memes:
  • Keke has quickly become this due to her antics.
  • Nagisa Aoyama, Ren's voice actress, is also one due to her unpredictable antics.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Mocking the designated comic relief happens in every group thus far: Nico, Yoshiko, and Kasumi get made fun of and toyed with by their respective cast members regularly, but generally within acceptable limits to the point where it's funny without being overly mean. Liella!'s treatment of Sumire is essentially this relationship but dialed up to eleven, with some fans wondering if Keke's attitude toward Sumire is crossing a line from funny to abusive.
  • In previous series, there was always one set of characters who were the center of attention for the group: the 2nd years in School idol project and Sunshine!!, and Yu and Ayumu in Nijigasaki. This much was understood and accepted since while the plot revolves them as the main characters, the story focuses just as much on the unit as a whole growing together and individual cast members beyond the main characters getting moments to shine. Superstar tries to maintain this juggling act on a mostly superficial level, but the overarching plot ends up tilting the balance very heavily in Kanon's favor (especially due to the Margarete Wien subplot in Season 2), causing many fans to consider the rest of the group underdeveloped to the point of jokingly referring to the show as "Kanon and her backup dancers".
• Genius Bonus:
  • NanoPutians can be seen if you look closely at the science room whiteboard in Season 2 Episode 4.
  • Fixing the QR code in Natsumi's business card seen in Season 2 Episode 5 will give you a link to the old official Love Live! website under Sunrise.
  • All of the game consoles that Ren's father sends her in Season 2 Episode 7 are based on real game consoles. There are two small rectangular devices next to the Tamagotchi; these are original Digimon virtual pet digivices, detailed here. Later, Keke holds a Nintendo PlayStation prototype, of which only one is known to currently exist.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Hispanic and Spanish fans immediately latched onto Kanon the moment that she was revealed to be 1/4 Spanish, a considerably rarer choice in foreign ancestry for a But Not Too Foreign anime character.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A soon-to-be-named Liella livestream themselves while making an idea for their group name. Now, Love Live officially launches their Tiktok account.
  • The Just Believe album from the Nijigasaki girls included a song named "Margaret", sung by Kasumi Nakasu. 2 years later, Liella's new rival turns out to be named Margaret(e) Wien, which makes for a funny coincidence or callback.
• I Knew It!:
  • Chisato and Ren being depicted with music course uniforms in the anime while their official artwork shows them with general course uniforms had fans suspecting that they may transfer out of the music course at some point. Sure enough, Chisato transfers to the general course at the end of Season 1 Episode 6 to join the School Idol Club.
  • Subverted with Ren. She shows up in the general course uniform in Season 1 Episode 9, but reveals that the director has simply changed the rules so that the students can pick whichever uniform they prefer, and she is still in the music course.
  • In Season 1 Episode 12, anyone who has seen the previous series already expected the fate of Liella! in their first Love Live tournament.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Kanon has started to become this over time, thanks to the massive focus the story takes on her. She has been shipped with Keke, Chisato, Kinako, Takasaki Yuu and even Margarete.
• Like You Would Really Do It: At the tail-end of Season 2, Kanon is invited to leave Yuigaoka High to enrole on a high-class musical school in Austria. Of course, the entire fandom doubted this would ever happen, namely because no "going abroad" plot has ever resulted on the recipient ever leaving (barring Ayumu's travel to London for 2 weeks). The story tries really hard to make the viewer believe Kanon will do it... up until the last minutes of Season 2, in which it's revealed that the offer was retracted.
• Memetic Loser: Ren has a tendency to be made fun-of in the fandom, either because of her reaction to opening a "forbidden love" website, her lack of a popular ship, her initial lack of lines in Season 2 of the anime, and her later focus episode in Season 2 that revealed her to be an obsessive Gamer Chick who freaked out over the very prospect of being made fun of for it.
• Memetic Mutation: Can be found here under the "Love Live! Superstar!!" folder.
• Moe: All the girls could count, but Kinako is possibly the biggest example, with her lack of experience and drive to keep up with the Liella! girls at the start of Season 2 gaining her many fans.
• Narm Charm: Part of the choreography for Catchu's "Alternate" involves the members dropping onto the floor and hitting it. But it looks absurd when the cute voice actresses dramatically oversell the drop and start hitting the floor so intense as if they hate it. It still works because the performance is still great overall.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • In Season 1 Episode 3, Keke comes up with the portmanteau name "KuuKaa" for her duo unit with Kanon. Two guesses as to what name the fans adopted for that particular ship.
  • SumiKeke for Sumire x Keke.
  • KanoChisa/ChisaKano for Kanon x Chisato.
  • ChisaRen for Chisato x Ren.
  • ShikiMei for Shiki x Mei.
• Preemptive Shipping: Shiki and Mei were shipped as soon as their profiles were revealed. Not that hard considering that Shiki flat out states that Mei is one of her favorite things.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Ren, while not hated, was divisive during Season 1. Season 2, Episode 7 revealing her to be a closeted hardcore Gamer Chick did wonders for her popularity.
• The Scrappy: Natsumi Onitsuka is one of the more disliked main characters in Love Live! history. Fans weren't receptive to her character introduction, in which she attempted to both take advantage of Liella! and even sow conflict between their members, and even after her addition to Liella! many fans felt that she hadn't really grown as a character and remained as sleazy and unpleasant as before.
• Seasonal Rot: Many fans agree that Superstar took a sharp drop in Season 2. Most common complaints cite pacing issues, with the season attempting to fit a tad too many long-running storylines in only 12 episodes (The recruitment of the new members, then their attempts to catch-up with their seniors, the new Love Live competition, Margarete's rivalry with Kanon and yet another Kanon-centric plot), Chisato and Ren being Demoted to Extra outside of a single Ren-centric episode, the divisive addition of new members (particularly Natsumi), and many instances of interesting characters and story beats taking backseat to Kanon and her conflict with Margarete - with the shelving of Sunny Passion being a particular point of contention.
• Self-Fanservice: Likely owing to the lack of official measurements, some of the girls (namely Sumire and Ren) are usually portrayed in fanarts as being more... "developed" than their peers.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Chisato x Ren has become rather popular despite their limited interactions together. It helps that their voice actresses have excellent chemistry together. Staff must have noticed it as Season 2 increased the amount of trivial scenes of them being together for no reason, including a Ship Tease in the ending credits.
• Signature Scene:
  • The "Tiny Stars" performance in Season 1 Episode 3, which has helped popularize KuuKaa as a pairing.
  • "Nonfiction!!", the Season 1 Episode 10 insert song, is quickly rising as the most popular insert song in Season 1.
• So Bad, It's Good: One of the proposed names for the group was "Xtreme" (pronounced "cross-stream"). Western fans were quick to point out the sheer absurdity of the name, no doubt in part due to the effect of Xtreme Kool Letterz and Totally Radical, and immediately mocked up parodies with the name with many remarking that it'd be funny if it won just because of how dumb it is.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Some fans have noted that "Hajimari wa Kimi no Sora" sounds oddly close to Aqours' "Mijuku DREAMER" at points.
  • The full version of Sunny Passion's "HOT PASSION!!" has been compared to Little Mix's "Black Magic" due to similar tunes.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • The announcement of the group adding four new members in April 2022 was met by incredibly divisive reactions across the globe. Fans who liked how the 5-member unit broke the mold from previous units were upset that Liella! would just become yet another 9-member unit, heavily diluting their uniqueness. Other fans were welcoming to the new members and were excited to see how they interact with their senior members, while others admitted that the method of announcement (unceremoniously revealing all four new characters in the Love Live Days! magazine with no warning) likely resulted in far more backlash than would have occurred if the new girls were introduced naturally.
  • The Season 3 announcement was similarly divisive, at least among Western fans. While several were excited about the series once again breaking another trend by getting a third season, fans who felt burned by the perceived subpar quality of Season 2 met the announcement with apprehension especially the immediate announcement shortly after broadcasting the last episode, given the sharp increase in writing fumbles and pacing problems suffered by Season 2. In addition, the staffs had fans waited for two years long to make it happen when the Season 3 has finally given the airing schedule.
  • The announcement of at least one new cast member joining the group, which revealed to be no other than Natsumi's younger sister, Tomari Onitsuka, was also met with mixed reaction, given that many felt that the additional four members added in Season 2 did not have time to develop when so much time was spent giving Kanon more character development. Not helping matters is that Tomari's existence isn't so much as mentioned throughout the entirety of Season 2, making her appearance feel incredibly arbitrary, and her being immediately paired with Margarete in promotional material came off as strange to fans considering Margarete spent most of Season 2 obsessing over Kanon.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Sunny Passion. Introduced as the rival group to Liella, they are given a contrast with other rival groups by actually having a goal to strive towards while joining the Love Live contest, and being amicable to the protagonists... and then they do nothing of note for two seasons. They don't even get to perform in the anime, get subject to The Worf Effect to hype up Margarete in Season 2, and are defeated off-screen. Many fans expressed disappointment at their treatment, particularly regarding their voice actresses, as they felt that staff had discarded them without giving them a chance to grow a fanbase.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Ren is said multiple times to have money problems after the loss of her mom and her efforts to rebuild Yuigaoka High, with the music course becoming affected by them through the events of the series, and having problems paying her maid. This could have been woven into her motivation to become a school idol, as Love Live has never wandered into the business-related side of the idol industry, with Ren using the money to both support herself and the school. Instead, this plot point is haphazardly dropped when her never-seen father sends her enough money to make all those issues a non-concern right at the last episode.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Some fans were quick to point out the CGI used in the first episode, which, despite the advancements to the CGI in Sunshine!! and Nijigasaki, looks a touch weird and out of place compared to the beautiful 2D animation used in the rest of the episode. Luckily this is only a problem in Season 1 Episode 1, with future performances bumping up the animation quality once again.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Natsumi Onitsuka. The narrative presents her as a misguided soul that lacks a dream and shares a fear of failure with Kanon, which leads to the latter empathizing and later telling her to join Liella! and share the same dream. However, many viewers felt that she was introduced as a very unlikeable character - a money-hungry schemer that wanted to take advantage of Liella! -, found contrived that Kanon and Keke sided with her, rather than with their teammates Sumire and Shiki when they started questioning Natsumi's motives, and thought that her "redemption" ignored her personal defects instead of having her grow as a person.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: Sunny Passion's designs have been criticized for clashing too much with the franchise's overall aesthetic, with some comments indicating the characters look like they originated from PriPara and/or Aikatsu!.